An American Cinderella

“Hey you,” Jaqui said, stepping into my office.

I dropped the stack of papers I was holding in surprise, sending a flurry of paperwork to the floor. I was sure she was there to arrest me. Or fire me. She had to suspect something. It didn’t help how jumpy I was around her lately.

“What’s up?” I asked, my voice shaking as I bent over and quickly picked up my papers. I waved Jaqui off when she tried to help me. I knew that it was all in my head, but I couldn’t shake the guilt hanging over me.

“I have a huge favor to ask of you,” Jaqui said. She leaned against the door and bit her lip.

“What do you need?” I set my stack of papers down. At least she wasn’t here to fire me.

“I need you to make trade folders and pamphlets for the upcoming delegation next week. My assistant is out with the flu, and these are needed now. I’m re-tasking you, if you’ll accept it.”

“You want me to make pamphlets?” I asked, not believing my luck. “Instead of this?” I motioned to the boxes still covering the floor. It seemed as though they appeared as quickly as I got through them.

“Yeah. If you don’t want to, I get it. It would put you behind on the scans and delay you getting out of here, but-”

“No, I want to,” I cut her off. I was being given a reprieve. It wasn’t my fault if I was being re-tasked. I knew my stepmother would have that changed the moment she found out, but for now, I was safe. “I really want to.”

Jaqui looked at me a little strangely. “Wow. You’re really excited about it. I didn’t think scanning was that bad.”

“I’m just bored with it,” I tried to explain. “Making folders for you will be a nice change of pace for a few days. It’s actually just what I need.”

Jaqui smiled. “I’m just glad you’re here and can do it. It really helps me out. The scanning can wait a few days, but this conference won’t.”

“I’m happy I can help,” I told her. “Really, I can’t tell you how glad I am to do it. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“It’s still for the Paradisians,” Jaqui explained. “They are throwing this big ball next weekend in honor of trade negotiations wrapping up, but that means that there’s a big meeting where the head honchos need pretty pamphlets and folders to discuss everything.”

“This is for the Paradisians?” I asked. Somehow it felt a little less like an escape. My stepmother would still find a way to make this work for her.

“Yes, so that’s why I can re-task you without too much paperwork,” she replied with a grin. “Hopefully, once this whole thing is done we can get you back to the senate somehow. As much as I love having you here, it’s not where you belong. You’re meant for bigger things than this.”

My heart warmed at my friend’s compliment. I didn’t deserve it. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you for switching tasks.” Jaqui grinned. “Go ahead and finish up what you’ve got open, and then come meet me in my office. I’ve got everything set up in the copy room.”

“Sounds great. I’ll be done in just a minute,” I said, feeling a lightness in my chest. I had just won a lucky break. It wasn’t much, but it did give me a little more time to come up with a way to get out from under my stepmother. I had a couple of ideas, but I needed to do some legal research before I pursued any of them. This gave me the time to do that without worrying as much.

I quickly stacked up my work and signed out of the laptop. It felt good to turn it off. I looked around the room, pleased to be leaving, even if it was only for a few days. I would miss this room only because of the picnic with Henry, but now that we were an official couple, I hoped there would be other picnics in other rooms.

I grabbed my things and headed to the copy room. I was ready to make folders and anything else Jaqui wanted as long as I didn’t have to go back to scanning documents.

I made pamphlets until my eyes ached. Then, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up groceries. I didn’t usually have nearly this much when I wasn’t cooking. It felt strange to have bags of things to bring up.